College Basketball AP Top 25 Rankings In Week 8: Jan. 4

LAWRENCE, Kan., Sporting Alert – Kansas has replaced Michigan State as the new No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings for Week 9, released on Monday.

The Jayhawks (12-1) received 44 of the 65 first-place votes for 1,598 points to improved one place from No. 2.

The Big 12 outfits picked up a pair of wins against UC Irvine and then-No. 23 Baylor last week.

Sitting at No. 2 this week is Oklahoma (12-0) which collected the next 21 first-place votes in the rankings for this week.

The Sooners only had one win last week, but it was against then-No. 11 Iowa State.

On Monday night, Oklahoma will travel to Lawrence to take on Kansas in what is expected to be the top college basketball matchup for the year to date.

Maryland moved one place up to No. 3 this week in the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings.

The Terrapins (13-1) scored wins over Penn State and Northwestern last week to continue their impressive early season performances, while Virginia (12-1) moved up to No. 4.

Meanwhile, Michigan State, which is still without injured forward Denzel Valentine, slipped four places after falling at Iowa last week, despite holding out for a 69-61 win over Minnesota in their second game.

Valentine could return next week, according to reports, which would be healthy news for the Spartans, who haven’t looked the same since losing their anchorman who is averaging 18.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 7.1 assists and shooting 45.6 percent from the field.

Completing the top 10 this week are North Carolina, at No. 6, Arizona, at No. 7, with Providence, Kentucky and Xavier also on the list.

Villanova is up five places to No. 11, with Miami (FL), Iowa State, Duke and SMU rounding out the top five this week.

Meanwhile, Utah (21), Cincinnati (22), Baylor (23) and UCLA (25) all fell out of the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings in Week 9, with Dayton, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Iowa the new-comers for this week.